George Takei Says Sexual Assault Allegations Are a Russian Conspiracy

After the accusations hit the Star Trek vet over the weekend, he went full galaxy brain.

Every day another once-beloved (or merely tolerated) star joins the parade of men forced to reckon with their past as alleged sexual abusers continues. Over the weekend, it was George Takei, who was accused of taking advantage of Scott Brunton, an ex-model and actor, when Brunton was 23 and Takei was in his forties. Takei denies the allegations, and also blames the Russians, because it’s 2017 and literally anything is plausible.

Brunton says he and Takei met in the early ‘80s, and that Takei invited him to his condo one night after Brunton broke up with his then boyfriend. He had two drinks, and said he felt dizzy. "The next thing I remember I was coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear," Brunton told the Hollywood Reporter.

Takei, at first, denied Brunton’s claims, writing on Facebook that he does not remember Brunton or the incident, and that “those that know me understand that non-consensual acts are so antithetical to my values and my practices, the very idea that someone would accuse me of this is quite personally painful.” Jezebel pointed out that Takei seemed to joke about groping men without their consent on the Howard Stern Show.

So far, this is the typical narrative that’s been happening recently, but Takei went full galaxy brain by suggesting that this was actually a story because Russian bots are targeting him. In now-deleted tweets, Takei posted a graph from Securing Democracy, a site that tracks “Russian influence operations on Twitter,” and said he had been targeted before when he criticized Putin’s anti-LGBT policies. Which seems to at once remind people that yes, he has a gay rights activist, and suggest that because of his activism he couldn’t possibly have been an abuser. Surprise: you can be both!! But of course, quite a few people are more willing to believe it’s all a conspiracy than that another beloved actor did something wrong.

Russian bots targeting Takei (which may or may not be real) is certainly the most creative excuse we’ve heard so far to avoid addressing sexual harassment allegations, and it sets a high bar (a low bar? A bar covered in feet of crap and lies?) for the inevitable next man. We can’t wait until someone blames it on chemtrails.

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